Rose's Immortality Assured, But Not Hall Of Fame Spot

August 26, 1989|By CHARLIE DENN Staff Writer

Those who know him say his banishment from baseball for gambling for at least the next year will haunt Pete Rose. Without the sport that has been a part of his life for so long, they say, Rose will be lost.

But baseball ultimately might deal Rose an even stiffer punishment which will have a far more profound effect on him: denial to the Hall of Fame.

Rose has made no secret of the fact he thinks he belongs in Cooperstown with the other baseball immortals. And who can argue with his numbers - he is the all-time leader in hits and games played, compiled a .305 lifetime average over 24 years, plus won three batting titles and one Most Valuable Player award.

But the lifetime banishment, with the right to appeal after one year, handed down to Rose Thursday by commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti could have a serious impact on Rose's chances of election to the Hall of Fame.

He becomes eligible for election in 1992. A player must receive at least 75 percent of the ballots cast in any year from the roughly 425 voting members.

"By that time, who knows what facts will have come out," said Jack Lang, a writer for the New York Daily News and the Executive Secretary of the Baseball Writers Association of America, the group which votes for Hall of Fame candidates. "I think it's good that we don't have to make a decision on this issue now. I'd rather wait.

"From all indications I've heard, there is a lot more to come out on this. Whatever happens is bound to influence the voters."

"You'll probably see a backlash of sorts over the next couple of years," said Paul Meyer of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the president of the BBWAA chapter in Pittsburgh. "I think a number of people who say they would still vote for Pete now will change their mind over the next couple of years. And I also think a number of people who say they would not vote for him now will also change their mind and go the other way."

An informal poll conducted Friday of some of the BBWAA members indicated there is still a lot of support for Rose to be admitted to the Hall of Fame. Most writers agreed his banishment would have some impact on his chances of election but few of them were willing to say Rose would not get in.

"I'd vote him into the Hall of Fame right away," said Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray. "He's not a criminal."

"I'll still vote for him no matter what," said Mike Littwin, columnist for The Baltimore Sun and a former Times-Herald sports writer. "We're not asking for any character references here. It's what you do on the field that counts.

"I've always thought he was very adolescent and he's certainly no role model for any kid that I know. But he was a great, great player."

"My feeling is they can't have a Hall of Fame without Pete Rose in it," said Gordon Verrell, a former Daily Press sports witer who is now the chairman of the Los Angeles chapter of the BBWAA. "What he's done on the field is just too overwhelming. I'd have a tough time not voting for baseball's all-time hits

leader."

"I'd still vote for him," said Hal McCoy of the Dayton Daily News. "I've covered baseball for 17 years and I've seen what Pete Rose has done for baseball."

The anti-Rose sentiment seems to run deepest among the veteran writers. Some of them appear unwilling to forgive what Rose is accused of doing.

"The baseball shrine should have the same integrity as the game itself," said Tom Gage of the Detroit Free Press.

"I'm not going to vote for him," said Jerome Hotzman, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune.

No one disputes Rose's on-field worthiness for Hall of Fame entry. But some writers have taken the stance that his banishment, for whatever the length of time, wil cost him the prestige of first-ballot election. This year both Johnny Bench and Carl Yastrzemski, playing contemporaries of Rose, won first-time induction.

"I really don't think he'll get it on the first ballot now, which I have some problems with," said Meyer. "To me if you're good enough to make it at all, you should be good enough to go in on the first ballot. But that might be the price he pays."

There appears to be sufficient precedent for keeping Rose out of the Hall of Fame. Guideline No. 4 for induction says "(a player) shall be chosen on the basis of playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, their contribution to the team for which they played and to baseball in general."

That guideline has kept Shoeless Joe Jackson from being admitted to the Hall of Fame. Jackson was suspended for life from baseball along with seven other members of the 1919 White Sox for allegedly conspiring to fix the World Series that year against Cincinnati.

Although Jackson and the other members of the "Black Sox" were cleared of wrong-doing by the court system, baseball commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis chose to ban Jackson and the others for life.

Giamatti could similarly opt to deny Rose's bid for reinstatement next August and in subsequent years.